As SPIEGEL reports here, Germany has for the third time blocked adoption of a compromise reached this summer which would make a 95 gram CO2 per kilometer target binding until 2020. Apparently, German environment minister Peter Altmaier wants to delay the transition from stinking gasoline cars to clean electric vehicles.

The reason Altmaier (and the German car industry lobbyists) give is that they are worried about their ability to compete under these new rules. They say this might lead to job losses.

That doesn’t make much sense.

The new rules will apply to all car makers. To say that German car makers would lose ground under these new rules would be to say that they are less able to deploy electrical vehicles until 2020 than the international competition. I don’t know why the German government has such a low opinion of the German car industry, or why their lobbyists actually get paid for spreading such a low opinion of them.

And there I was including Daimler stock in my List of Global Warming Stocks. since I liked their investment at Tesla Motors so much. I am going back to that post right now and cancel that recommendation, as well as my own plan to buy some Daimler stock with money I expect in the coming months from an inheritance. Since the German government just told me that Daimler is unable to do the transition from STINKCARS to electrical vehicles in a timeframe of more than six years remaining, it would be irresponsible to keep that recommendation up.